The Vatican Information Service is a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia...[+]

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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Vatican
City, 18 April 2013
(VIS) - “The Holy Father shares your sorrow, and that of the many
mothers and families who have and are suffering the tragic loss of
their loved ones at this moment in Argentina's history.” These are
the words that the Pope addressed to Hebe de Bonafini, president of
the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, in a letter
dated 10 April and signed by Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, under-secretary
for the Holy See’s Relations with States.

The
Bishop of Rome thus responded to the letter that Hebe de Bonafini
sent to him this past 21 March, gladdened by Cardinal Bergoglio's
commitment in the “slums” of Buenos Aires and asking him to join
with “all those in this unjust world who are fighting for an end to
poverty.”

The
Pope, writes Msgr. Camilleri, expresses his gratitude for the letter
and responds to “your kindness, asking God for the strength for the
fight, in the ministry that he has just accepted, for the eradication
of poverty in the world, so that the suffering of so many who are in
need might cease. His Holiness appreciates and highly esteems those
who are close to the most disadvantaged and who make the effort to
assist them, understand them, and meet their aspirations. In his
prayers, he also asks that those responsible for the common good be
enlightened so that they might fight the scourge of poverty with
effective, equable, and caring means.”

The
letter concludes with the Pope's blessing “as a sign of hope and
support, at the same time asking the favour that they pray for and
have prayers said for him.”

The
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an association of Argentinian mothers
created in 1977 to denounce the disappearance of their children
during the time of the Military Junta that controlled Argentina from
1976 to 1983. Since 1977 they have assembled every Thursday in the
Plaza de Mayo in front of the Casa Rosada (the “Pink House”, seat
of the Argentinian government) to protest for the crimes committed
during that era and to keep alive the memory of the desaparecidos.

Vatican
City, 18 April 2013
(VIS) – The German multinational financial services company Allianz
Group, present in over 70 countries and with over 78 million clients
worldwide, has awarded the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr.
Federico Lombardi, S.J., as their Communicator of the Year.

The
prize was awarded this morning during a meeting of the company's
communications directors who meet once a year in a European capital
to analyse themes and strategies tied to the world of communications
with the assistance of experts in the field.

Among
the reasons for this year's award, Allianz notes that Fr. Lombardi
“represents the key to understanding and interpreting the Holy See
with great refinement and experience, without seeking to make himself
the protagonist.” The text of the award adds that the Press Office
Director has always been “at the service of information, from both
the side of the one who has it as well as that of the one who seeks
it.”

-
Bishop Djuro Hranic as metropolitan archbishop of Dakovo-Osijek
(area 7,752, population 643,892, Catholics 548,137, priests 250,
permanent deacons 1, religious 423), Croatia. Bishop Hranic,
previously auxiliary of the same ecclesiastic circumscription, was
born in Vinkovci, Croatia in 1961, was ordained to the priesthood in
1986, and received episcopal ordination in 2001, being assigned the
See of Gaudiaba. The archbishop-elect succeeds Archbishop Marin
Srakic, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same
archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age
limit.

-
Fr. David J. Walkowiak as bishop of Grand Rapids (area 17,592,
population 1,318,000, Catholics 179,500, priests 141, permanent
deacons 40, religious 67), Michigan, USA. Fr. Walkowiak, of the
clergy of the Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio, USA, was born in Cleveland
in 1953, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1979. Holding a
doctorate in Canon Law, he serves as an associate judge of the
appellate tribunal for the Province of Cincinnati as well as the
pastor of St. Joan of Arc parish in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, USA. The
bishop-elect succeeds Bishop Walter Allison Hurley, whose resignation
from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted,
upon having reached the age limit.